Electric Blue

The shrewd, sassy protagonist of Bush's Jane Kelly series gets tangled in dangerous family politics in her lively second outing (after 2005's Candy Apple Red ). The members of the wealthy, eccentric Purcell clan of Lake Chinook, Ore., are all crazy, warns Jane's rakish mentor Dwayne Durbin, but Jane, a PI in training, agrees to work for the handsome Jasper "Jazz" Purcell anyway. Jazz wants Jane to help assess the mental faculties of his aging grandmother, Orchid, who holds the family purse strings. With various kooky Purcells vying for an inheritance, Jane and her beloved pug, the Binkster, are embraced by Orchid. But the family's fishy history motivates Jane to investigate the long-ago death of Jazz's mother, Lily, who perished at a sanitarium. Meanwhile, Jane wrestles with ambivalence about her blossoming romance with Jazz—and her flirtatious relationship with Dwayne. Bush dials up the suspense when one of the Purcells is found dead. With her clever ability to handle the zaniest of life's circumstances, Jane won't disappoint readers. (Oct.)